Florida donors favor Clinton over Trump
WASHINGTON - Floridians have given three times as much to Democrat Hillary Clinton as they have to Republican Donald Trump, the latest campaign finance figures show.
Of the $40.5 million Sunshine State donors have shelled out to all presidential campaigns so far, Clinton has gotten one-third: $13.3 million.
Trump has received about $4 million, less than the amount raised in-state by either of Trump’s two former GOP rivals — former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ($6.6 million) and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio ($5.5 million), according to Federal Election Commission records.
It’s not a surprise. Clinton is a prolific fundraiser with deep-pocketed support in Florida. Trump made little effort during the primary to solicit contributions, touting his independence from special interests he said couldn’t buy him.
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More than half Clinton’s haul — $7.2 million — came from South Florida: Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Monroe counties.
Other places that gave to her include the Orlando area ($1.2 million), the Tampa-St. Pete metro area ($1.05 million), Sarasota/Bradenton ($773,000), Southwest Florida ($630,000), greater Jacksonville ($434,000), the Space and Treasure coasts ($375,000), and the Big Bend region ($337,000).
Trump, on the other hand, has drawn fairly evenly throughout the state.
Palm Beach County donors gave him the most ($581,000), but there were no standouts among the other areas — Southwest Florida ($466,000), Miami-Dade ($432,000), Orlando area ($392,000), the Space and Treasure coasts ($300,000), Tampa-St. Pete ($244,000), the Panhandle ($185,000), and greater Jacksonville ($157,000).
The number and size of campaign contributions isn’t necessarily a sign of voter support, though most recent polls have Clinton leading Trump by percentage points in Florida.
Breaking pledge not hurting Rubio much
It looks like Florida voters have largely gotten over Marco Rubio’s decision to break his pledge not to run for re-election.
Most voters (53 percent) responding to a Monmouth University poll said Rubio decided to run for a second term after losing his bid for the White House (despite his repeated insistence he would return to private life in January) more to improve his chances for a future presidential run than to serve the public (25 percent).
Despite that, more Florida voters approve (47 percent) than disapprove (39 percent) of the job Rubio has done as a senator, and a plurality (40 percent) hold a favorable opinion of Rubio compared to 33 percent who don’t.
The poll, issued last week, also showed Rubio with a 5-point lead over Rep. Patrick Murphy, the Jupiter congressman expected to win the Democratic Senate nomination in Tuesday’s primary.
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The telephone poll of likely voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
Carlos Beruff, Republican businessman running against Rubio for the GOP nomination, has hammered the incumbent for breaking his promise. But Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, said Rubio’s large lead over Beruff suggests the argument isn’t sticking.
“People just personally like Rubio in Florida enough that it’s overcoming those negatives,” Murray said.
Florida is ground zero for TV ads
Here’s a shocker to any Floridian with a television: The Sunshine State boasts three of the nation’s top five media markets when it comes to number of presidential campaign ads on TV.
Tampa has seen 6,553 ads aired from June 8 through Aug. 18, the single most saturated media market in the nation, according to the Wesleyan Media Project, a nonpartisan center that tracks political advertising.
The Orlando media market followed with 5,723 ad airings. West Palm Beach, with 4,623, was fifth.
Those are among the more than 2 million TV spots for all political races that have aired so far nationwide during the election cycle, according to the center. The cycle officially began Jan. 1, 2015 but most of the ads have been running in recent weeks.
At this point during the last presidential cycle in 2012, there had been about 1.87 million total airings.
An estimated $1.56 billion has been spent to date, according to Wesleyan.
About one-third of that total ($517 million) was spent on nearly 610,000 ad airings in the presidential race, while spending on campaigns for U.S. Senate came to $247 million for more than 280,000 airings.
Spending on races for governor and U.S. House lag behind, clocking in at a little over $80 million apiece. Just over $34 million has been spent on ballot measures so far.
“Judging by where advertisers are putting their money, Florida, Ohio and North Carolina are the biggest presidential battlegrounds in 2016,” said Michael Franz, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project. “These swing states have not changed much, if any, from four years ago.”
Obama heaps praise on Fugate
President Obama believes a Floridian was one of his best hires.
That’s how he described Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Craig Fugate during a trip to flood-ravaged Louisiana on Tuesday.
Obama said Fugate “has done such an outstanding job not just in dealing with this particular incident, but has really rebuilt FEMA so that there’s a change of culture,” the president said. “And everybody knows that when a disaster happens, FEMA is going to be there on the ground, cooperating with state and local officials rapidly and with attention to detail, and keeping the families who’ve been affected uppermost in their minds. So we very much appreciate everything Craig has done.”
Not everyone is that impressed with the agency, tarnished by its sluggish response to Hurricane Katrina more than decade ago. It’s accused of responding too slowly or too ham-handedly at times. But Fugate has won praise from both sides of the aisle for being a straight shooter — no easy task in Washington.
Obama hired the former Alachua County paramedic in 2009, after Fugate had spent eight years running Florida’s Department of Emergency Management.
During the news conference in Baton Rouge, Obama conceded it wasn’t easiest of visits for his crisis czar, and not just because of the floods that killed 13 and left tens of thousands homeless.
“It’s hard, by the way, for Craig to be here because he’s a Florida Gator — (laughter) — and he’s been seeing a lot of LSU T-shirts as we’ve been passing by,” the president said.
Contact Ledyard King atlking@gannett.com; Twitter: @ledgeking